Facile solvent/drying fabrication of PVA/PPy/rGO: A novel nanocomposite for energy storage applications

The present study provides brief insight into the fabrication process and the properties of nanocomposite of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polypyrrole (PPy) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The fabrication method of the nanocomposite involves the use of facile solvent/drying method. PPy and rGO nanoparticles were used to improve the conductivity of PVA, which is intrinsically non-conductive. On the other hand, the electrochemical ability of PPy, was enhanced by the additions of PVA and rGO to PPy. In order to investigate the properties of the fabricated PVA/PPy/rGO nanocomposite, XRD, SEM, FTIR, TGA and EIS machines were employed to characterize the samples produced. An alteration in the crystalline peak of PVA was observed as the weight fraction of PPy and rGO nanoparticles were varied. The PVA/PPy/rGO nanocomposite is stable at ∼420 °C. It was further observed that the grain size of PPy kept decreasing; the orderly and compact structure of PVA varied as the rGO weight fraction increased. The electrical conductivity and the electrochemical properties of the fabricated nanocomposite experienced significant improvement to a percolation level with respect to the filler content. By considering the appreciable and desirable properties of PVA/PPy/rGO nanocomposite, this study suggests its use for the manufacturing of supercapacitor and battery electrodes.